Coming from Remco Evenepoel, it sounded much less like a boast and extra like an announcement of truth. “I’m a specialist find type at one of the best second,” the Belgian instructed reporters in Wetzikon on Friday night, two days earlier than he defends his time trial title on the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich.
These days, Evenepoel not often will get it fallacious when he targets a significant purpose. His relative travails at June’s Critérium du Dauphiné have been swiftly forgotten after a glowing summer time that yielded a podium end in his debut Tour de France and two gold medals on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
And so, when Evenepoel offers his type his vote of confidence – “I believe I’ve discovered the proper legs on the proper time” – one is inclined to take him at his phrase. A relatively subdued exhibiting on the Tour of Britain was, he indicated, one thing of a palate cleanser as he returned to motion following a post-Olympics hiatus.
“Quite a bit occurred after the Olympic Games, a number of events, requests and ceremonies, in Brussels and Schepdael too. It wasn’t straightforward,” Evenepoel mentioned. “Then once I acquired again dwelling to Spain, I attempted to get again on the bike as shortly as doable, however I acquired a bit sick, so it was tougher to get again into fine condition. But I took my time, and I stayed calm, which was the proper method to be in fine condition now.
“There’s nonetheless fuel within the tank. I lined up on the Tour of Britain with out strain and with out eager to do outcomes, so I used to be very calm in my thoughts. Then I put the concentrate on the 2 World Championships races and Il Lombardia.”
It’s been nicely documented that no rider has ever received time trial gold on the Olympic Games and World Championships in the identical yr. It’s been slightly much less trumpeted that no male rider has even tried the feat. (Of the feminine champions, Annemiek van Vleuten went closest in 2021, with gold in Tokyo and bronze on the Worlds). Since the self-discipline was added to the Olympic programme in 1996, nonetheless, each male champion from Miguel Induráin to Primož Roglič has opted in opposition to rolling down the beginning ramp on the Worlds in any respect.
Evenepoel, it appears, by no means even contemplated the concept of skipping the Worlds time trial. Indeed, his preliminary plan for 2024 was to make a tilt at a hat-trick of time trial gold medals. “I hoped to win the three titles, however I needed to skip the European Championship because of sickness,” he mentioned.
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Road race
In Zurich, Evenepoel will line out as the plain favorite, with Stefan Küng and Roglic the most definitely challengers. Evenepoel, nonetheless, warned in opposition to ruling out Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling, who had staked a lot on the Olympics time trial solely to be soundly overwhelmed by the Belgian within the rain of Paris.
“Ganna and Tarling had actually targeted on the Olympics. I beat them there with none particular preparation and that may have been a disappointment for them, I believe,” Evenepoel mentioned. “But they are going to be heading in the right direction right here. They are championship riders, so I’m not writing them off identical to that.”
Evenepoel, in fact, is one thing of a championship rider himself. He has completed on the rostrum in every of his 4 earlier Worlds time trial appearances, culminating with gold in Glasgow a yr in the past. The sheer size of that course is replicated with the 46km take a look at in Switzerland, whereas the undulating center part appears ideally tailor-made to Evenepoel.
“I agree. From the beginning you go straight forward for a very long time till the climb,” he mentioned. “It’s not likely a 5 or six-minute effort uphill, as a substitute it goes up in steps. Then you come down and you’ve got one other 12km flat and straight forward.
“It’s virtually like three time trials in a single when it comes to its configuration, and that ought to go well with me. But I’ve received on all forms of programs. Every time trial fits me, roughly.”
And each race, too, it appears. Tadej Pogačar would be the favorite for the street race per week on Sunday, however Evenepoel and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel are maybe the boys most definitely to disclaim him the Triple Crown on a tricky course that carries echoes of the much-missed Züri-Metzgete.
“My motivation stays the identical. I’m somebody who lives for this sort of championship and for distinctive jerseys,” Evenepoel mentioned. “I’m going to provide it my all, 100%, in each races. The motivation may be very excessive, and neither race is extra vital than the opposite.”
Evenepoel was talking in a convention room on the Hotel Swiss Star, flitting amiably between Flemish, French and English to a press pack composed predominantly of reporters who had made their manner from his dwelling nation on Friday morning to doc the Belgian star’s each utterance and each transfer.
Murmurs of a possible transfer from Soudal-QuickStep to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have been background noise all through a lot of Evenepoel’s season, although he was reluctant to entertain the hypothesis on arrival in Switzerland.
“It’s annoying, particularly when there may be nearly nothing to it,” Evenepoel instructed VRT in a separate interview on Friday. “It’s annoying as a result of I at all times attempt to concentrate on what must be finished. There are at all times further impulses from outdoors anyway that you do not actually need, particularly within the preparation for what’s nonetheless to return, the World Cup and the Italian Classics.
“But in the long run, I’m somebody who can shrug that off shortly, though it would not at all times come simply. It’s one thing that has been there for just a few years. Of course, it might be toned down on occasion, however luckily, I’ve a tough head and I can simply hold specializing in what must be finished.”